Rikers Island Warden Demoted for Heat Death

In this March 12, 2014 photo, Alma Murdough and her daughter Cheryl Warner hold a photo of Murdough’s son, Jerome, at her home in Queens.

AP

The warden in command of the Rikers Island jail where a homeless veteran died in February after a heating malfunction caused temperatures in his cell to soar past 100 degrees has been demoted, a city official said.

Acting city Department of Corrections Commissioner Mark Cranston said Thursday that as a result of his preliminary investigation, Rose Agro was transferred from her job as warden of the Anna M. Kross Center jail where 56-year-old Jerome Murdough was found dead in his cell on Feb. 15.

Mr. Cranston said Ms. Agro was assigned to supervise another facility that doesn’t house mentally ill inmates, according to corrections spokesman Eldin Villafane.

Ms. Agro couldn’t be reached for comment.

The correction officer who was supposed to be making regular checks on Mr. Murdough had already served a 20-day suspension without pay.

On Thursday, Mr. Cranston ordered the officer, who he didn’t identify, to be suspended for another 10 days without pay, which is the maximum permitted under civil service law.

The Bronx District attorney’s office is investigating the death to determine if any criminal laws were violated.

Pending the completion of a full investigation into the heating, ventilation and air condition system that malfunctioned, the supervisor of mechanics at the Anna M. Kross Center was transferred to a unit where he will no longer work projects involving jails where inmates are housed, Mr. Villafane said.

Late on the night of Feb. 14, about a week after arriving at Rikers as a result of a trespassing arrest in Harlem, Mr. Murdough was sent to a cell in the mental-observation unit, where he was supposed to be checked on every 15 minutes as part of a suicide watch, officials said.

Instead, four hours passed before Mr. Murdough was discovered dead in his cell the next morning.

Facing questions about the incident at a preliminary budget hearing at City Hall last month, Mr. Cranston said assessments of the cell unit’s heating system by an independent contractor had found several malfunctioning components that may have been “contributing factors” to the high temperatures.